Review Miscued

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Jacobo Timer man, author of Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number and The Longest War, Israel in Lebanon, spent two years imprisoned and tortured in Argentina for being Jewish and an outspoken, leftist journalist. Because of this outspokenness and his political, beliefs. Timer man was welcomed back into the Jewish community after his release with an outpouring of derision from the Argentinean and American Jewish establishments. It has been especially embarrassing, as an American Jew, to see Jewish authorities apparently join the United States government in its distinction between "authoritarian" and "totalitarian" states when it comes to Jewish oppression, making heroes of Soviet prisoners-of-conscience and discrediting victims of Argentinean anti-Semitism and political repression. And now the attack is carried on in Crimson "book review" (so little of the article actually dealt with the book that I hesitate to use the term) by Daniel Benjamin. Timer man once again is Enemy No. 1 of Israel, the Jewish People, and, it appears, literature in general.

Mr. Benjamin begins his piece with the timely realization that American Journalism is not "objective"; what he does not clarify, however, is when non-objective came to equal anti-Semitic. Most American journalists suffer from the plight of being American, thus viewing the world from a particular social and cultural bias. This may be a debility when it comes to omniscience, but I think the media's overkill on the Israel-Lebanon issue this summer stemmed more from the American public's fascination with Israel, and to the relatively uncontroversial nature of coverage of Lebanon as compared to the more politically volatile events in the U.S.'s backyard debacle in Central America, than from spreading Jew-hatred within the journalistic ranks. And by the way--I read the Village Voice, even Alexander Cock burn sometimes, and I promise I am not "a rabid anti-Semite."

I have not read The Longest War, only Timer man's articles and excerpts published here concerning Israel and the war in Lebanon, and from his words and past deeds it is obvious to me that Timer man is a man not to be condemned but emulated; a person who acts as his conscience directs and who, while remaining a committed Zionist Jew, is not afraid to apply principles of social justice and ethical behavior to any society in which he lives. Mr. Timer man did not move to America, the Land of Milk and Honey and Harvard University when he was released by Argentina; he went to live in Israel and be with his people, for better or worse. Daniel Benjamin's charge that Timer man is somehow not a true Israeli is so nauseating as to defy response; I can only wonder how Benjamin reconciles his own--I suppose it is painful?--residency outside of Israel with his journalistic treatment of that country.

As to Benjamin's implicit assessment of the situation in the Middle East:

1. Ariel Sharon did lie, repeatedly, to the Israeli Cabinet as to the progress of the war in Lebanon. This was pointed out most notably in the Israeli press, and further confirmed by the Cabinet's order in August to Sharon to report planned military actions, in response to the heedless nature of his approach in Beirut.

2. The notion that the PLO invited its own destruction and dispersion in order to "roast the Israelis on the spit of world opinion" is, more than anything, extremely humorous; It is also bellied by Sharon's openly stated aims, made public after the war (see the interview with Orion Fallacy from September), most of which are unabashedly aggressive.

3. The toll taken on Israel by the Palestinian presence is not only one of an imbedded fear of violence. It runs much deeper than that, and is bound up with both the ethical problems of being an occupying power and the difficult reconciliation of an inherited victim complex with the present reality of being an unmatched military force in the Middle East. As is becoming increasingly clear, the invasion of Lebanon solved nothing, and it is now obvious to most people within and outside Israel that getting rid of some terrorists provides no resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Despite bitter attacks-from those ostensibly supportive of Israel, it is people with the strength and vision of a Jacob Timer man who can help guide Israel onto a path of peaceful co-existence with its neighbors and a restoration of equity and general health within Israeli society. As long as Timer man stays in Israel, and his detractors behind their desks in America, maybe there is some hope. Toba Spitzer '85